Gilroy

Though we here at io9 would have preferred Andor win all the Emmys, the Disney+ Star Wars show did pick up a few notable trophies, including Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Dan Gilroy, brother of Andor creator Tony Gilroy, won the honor for season two’s ninth episode, “Welcome to the Rebellion.” You know, the one where Mon Mothma makes her ferocious speech condemning genocide and monstrous leaders from the senate floor.

While remarking on how unfortunately relevant the story of Andor ended up being isn’t new—Tony Gilroy has certainly spoken about it—the themes of the show have become even more potent in the wake of ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the talk show host’s comments on the death of Charlie Kirk.

Yesterday, creatives and subscribers called for a boycott of Disney, ABC’s parent company and also the corporate parent of Star Wars. Today, Dan Gilroy published an op-ed in Deadline with a “Welcome to the Rebellion”-style wake-up call.

“As one of the writers on the Disney+ drama Andor, we spent six years thinking about a fascist takeover of a galaxy far, far away,” it begins.

“Six years thinking about ordinary beings as an authoritarian regime comes in for the kill. Many people saw parallels between Andor and the real world. I see them as well, particularly in the events of the last week.”

The essay goes on to condemn Disney’s decision to suspend Kimmel, noting, “I deeply disagree but acknowledge it was a difficult decision.”

Gilroy goes on to address others in the entertainment industry, warning Hollywood it cannot accept this turn of events in our “brave new Trumpian world,” as he puts it, because it’s poised to get worse: “The first thing Putin did after taking power was silence shows that criticized him. Artists are censored first because they fear us most.”

Gilroy finishes by encouraging action. “Their goal is to instill fear, to make you feel helpless, hopeless, to break you down,” he writes. “Don’t let them. Educate yourself. Organize. Speak truth to authority. Because the story’s not written—the pen is in your hand.”

Read the full essay at Deadline; if you haven’t cancelled Disney+, you can still watch Andor there.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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When Tony Gilroy began his Andor journey, his original pitch was deemed “pretty mad and undoable” by Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the showrunner revealed how that initial take would later get revisited after Lucasfilm gave it some thought.

“They came back to me and said, ‘We looked at this memo from a year and a half ago, and it makes a lot more sense to us now,’” he recalled. That, of course, led to a series expanding on the very foundation that Star Wars creator George Lucas had in mind when he began the beloved saga: Space Nazis are bad, and the rebellion is coming.

Around the time award nominations were announced for the show’s critically acclaimed second season, real-world headlines eerily mirrored events seen in Andor. In particular, a scene in the Emmy-nominated episode “Welcome to the Rebellion,” which depicts a Ghorman senator being carted off by stormtroopers as he says, “My people today and yours tomorrow; remember Ghorman!” struck a very timely nerve.

It’s a devastating series of events that’s not lost on Gilroy. “When I started on the show, the parallels between what was happening in the world and what was happening in the galaxy and the Empire—those were already obvious.” He explained that his inspiration came from a love of history and using that to embed the seeds of how totalitarianism has taken root in Star Wars.

“But over the six years we’ve been doing the show, that little monster got on its feet and learned how to run,” he said. “When [U.S. Senator for California Alex Padilla] was pulled out of the ICE meeting, like in the episode about the Ghorman senator being pulled out, there was a big text chain in our group like, ‘Oh my God. It looked like the show.’ It’s very sad for us how much it rhymes.”

While we continue to live in unprecedented times, the filmmaker notes that Andor feels like something he can’t see himself doing again. It’s disappointing, but as the state of the entertainment industry continues to evolve, it makes sense.

“For five and a half years, every single day of my life, I had a maximally imaginative involvement that was never complete—writing, designing, music, casting, all of it,” Gilroy said of the pandemic-era-born production. “Every demand on your imagination that could ever be asked was screaming for your attention. That’s a pretty heady place to live. I grew to love it. But I can’t imagine that I would ever be that fully engaged again,” he concluded, but we hold out hope the vast galaxy makes space for his return; we need these stories now more than ever.

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‘Andor’ Writer Dan Gilroy Knows Why You’re Thinking About the Show This Week (and It’s Not the Emmys)

Tony Gilroy Is Very Sad at How Relevant ‘Andor’ Has Become